


A Night Without You

by DrSaltyParabola (ryuuhawkeye)



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Established Erin Gilbert/Jillian Holtzmann, F/F, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gilbert-Holtzmann, Holtzbert - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 23:30:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11588406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryuuhawkeye/pseuds/DrSaltyParabola
Summary: Twelve am and Holtz was still up, tinkering with her pet project. She couldn't sleep. And there's another person in her home that couldn't sleep either. Both missing the oneerson that wasn't there that night. Also, thank god for technology of video call!





	A Night Without You

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first time writing in this fandom but I've been shipping Holtzbert since forever. I'm also new to f/f relationship (my experience of it before Holtzbert was zero) and thanksmto this famdom, and Twitter, I could finally talk about this. Im sorry if anything is wrong, especially the grammar. Please be kind and do comment on your thoughts about my work! 
> 
> Happy reading :)

It was only five minutes to the clock strike midnight, and hours past the usual bed time in the household but a certain nuclear engineer was so engrossed with her endless tinkering. The project in her hands, started out as something that accidentally crossed her mind while day dreaming. Nothing important, but she'd to get it out. After months of thinking about it, Holtz finally wrote it on her blueprints two days ago and now, trying to obsessively finish it. 

That, and also she was having trouble falling asleep. Her insomnia was coming back after years went hiding. Instead of forcing the never coming sleep, which eventually would result in a restless, grumpy, ill-tempered Dr Jillian Holtzmann, she decided it was a lot better for her to finally get around this project. At least, if she did not sleep because of this, she would still feel hundred times better next morning and maybe, exhausted enough to fall into a deep sleep. 

She was so focus and into her work in the lab she'd built into her apartment that she did not even notice the pitty-patter of tiny footsteps that coming towards her. Her trance was finally broken when she was tugged by a small, yet strong hand. "Shhiiooott!" the screwdriver in her hand was thrown into the air and just moment before it clattered onto her invention, she caught it. She placed it on the table as she turned her attention toward the source of her surprise. 

Her striking blues met with a pair of dark greens. 

"Heyya buddy," her voice was so soft as she held her arms out for him. In an instant, the child clambered onto her laps, with his hands hugging Holtz's body while burying his face into her chest. Wisps of his brunette hair tickled her nose as she gave him a kiss on the head. 

"You can't sleep?" Holtz got her answer with a small nod. Silence settled between them. She rocked her body, gave him kisses, both done absentmindedly. 

"When's mama coming back?' his voice muffled against Holtz shirt. 

She chuckled. I guess we're having the same problem here, bud. "She's coming back this Saturday, just three da-" her watch beeped, "two days from now." A grin appeared on her face. Just another couple of days before the love of her life would be back in her arms. 

"Why does she have to leave me?" 

That sentence broke Holtz's heart to million pieces. Her grin was short lived and it was replaced by sad smile. She tightened her hold around the small body. 

"Oh honey. Mama didn't leave you. She's away for work. She'll come back when her work is done." Holtz pulled herself from the little one and looked straight into his dark green eyes he'd inherited from his mama. "She loves you too much to even think about it. She loves you just as much as I love you, baby." 

"I miss mama," he cried and brought his fingers to his eyes, trying to sweep away the fat tears that were already pooling. 

"I miss her too." Holtz wiped away her son's tears, hugged him and waited for his quiet sobs to settle down. 

This was the first time that her wife's the one that had to go to an international physic conference in Germany since Michael was born. For the past four years, the Ghostbusters managed to keep Erin to stay and man the Firehouse while they went to busts since the second Holtz burst that they're going to be mummies and aunties. Erin protested at first. Oh boy, she did but with the help of a certain Jennifer Lynch and the ever horrifying her mentor-mother-in-law, Dr Gorin, Erin stopped going to bust. Apparently, those two teamed up and only needed to give Erin just fifteen minutes of private talk to insist her staying at Firehouse every time they got a call. Until this moment, none of the other three knew what Lynch and Gorin talked about to Erin. Whatever it was, Erin didn't only stop going to bust, she even politely refused to go to any conferences that previously would jump to every single occasion.

Yeay for Lynch and Dr Gorin! 

Erin Gilbert only suit up in her Ghostbuster uniform only after the little one was six month-old - she'd wanted to be back busting when Michael was two months, but her ever so-overprotective wife and friends said otherwise. None of them wanted to put Michael in a day care, or calling for a baby sitter, and Holtz wasn't sure that she could handle him all alone. She was terrified that she might do harm to him. 

So yeah. That was it. The conferences that she went previously were somewhere near or usually the whole team went together including her son. This time, however, it was such a short notice that they didn't have time to sort everything. Patty was away for another conference, and they couldn't possibly let only person standing by for calls. So Erin'd to go alone and leave their son in the hand of his mummy. The sweet memories brought a huge smile on her face. She'd married the love of her life and had this sweet, lovely son with her. Who would have thought that all those years ago, when Erin came into the Higgins lab and she'd greeted her with a pickup line, would bring them to this? She found more than friends and family in Ghostbusters. She found reason for her existence. 

"Hey. Let's take a picture and send it to Mama. She's definitely misses us just like we do." Holtz grabbed her phone from the work table and quickly tapped on the camera app. She flipped the camera to the front. 

"C'mon. Smile for her." Holtz grinned to the camera while Michael only managed a small smile. "That's not gonna do it buddy. Mama would need something a lot bigger than that," and with that, Holtz blew raspberries against her son's ear and her free hand tickled his tummy.

Michael Gilbert-Holtzmann giggled in delight. "Okayyy momm-" he laughed "-mmyyy. I smile. I smileeee," he managed to get the words out between the laughter. 

"Heh. Good choice Mikey. Good choice." 

The duo took a few selfies, making weird faces and all. Almost fifty pictures later, Holtz decided they now had enough photos for Erin. 

"Now... Let's see which one we should send to Mama." They scrolled and viewed all pictures. Smiles, huge grins, puckered ups, tongues out, mouths wide open were among the expressions they did. 

"This one!" Mikey pointed to one photo, both opening their mouth wide open - a very Holtzmann look. "Oh and this one!" a scrunched up faces. After few minutes, they finally chose ten pictures and Holtz typed a short text for her. 

"We missed you!" and she sent the photos. 

"Kay. Now it's...." Holtz glanced at the time on the phone. "twelve-thirty. I think we should go to bed... Don't you think? We're definitely waaay after our bedtime." 

His face fell. Sleeping alone, when his mama wasn't home with him was definitely something he didn't like. "Kay..." 

Holtz grinned. She obviously knew that Mikey wasn't keen on that idea but he was so much like Erin. He always kept his feelings deep down, rarely opened. Luckily, Holtz was an expert on both and they're like opened books to her and she's definitely not going to let her son sleeping alone. Holtz stood up, with her son still in her arms. 

"Lezzago!" Michael wrapped his arms around her neck and buried his face in the nook as they walked out of the lab. They're steps away from the bedroom when Holtz's phone rang. At this hour, if the phone rang, it always meant one thing. His mommy or mama had to go to work and since only mommy was the only one home, he'll have to stay with Uncle Kev. Now even his mommy going to leave him. Michael felt a very uncomfortable tug in his chest as Mommy quickly balanced him single-handedly while fishing out the phone. 

And when she answered it, Michael heard a voice that he's been missing so much; his Mama's voice. 

"Mama!" Michael turned as Holtz brought the phone in front of both of them. There, on the screen was his Mama, already in her morning clothes. Wherever his Mama was, it looked like it was morning already. 

"Hi baby! How are you?" and the two of them talked. Michael effectively forgotten how bad he was feeling just a second ago. 

"I miss you Mama. When are you coming back? Why is it morning? Is there any ghost there? Ohhh you see my pictures with Mommy?" Mikey was so happy to finally see his Mama on the phone that he actually jumping in Holtz's arms which if it wasn't for her reflexes and lightning respond, they would probably have toppled over. She handed over the phone to Michael, letting him held the device while she secured her arms tightly around this buttocks and continued their way into the bedroom. 

Holtz smiled as she listened to the loves of her life talking. Mikey was asking a lot of random questions, especially if Mama was going to come home in the next hour or so, and if it's okay for him to lend Uncle Kev his proton-shotgun toy when they go to the Firehouse tomorrow. Kevin had somehow replaced Abby's ghost grenades with the toy version that Holtz had whipped up for Mikey. Luckily no one was hurt other than the class IV that got blasted away. Kevin had been banned to play with Mikey's toys. 

The conversation between Erin and Michael lasted for a good fifteen minutes, in which during that time, Holtz had put her son on the bed, changed into pyjama, washed her face and brushed her teeth before settling into the bed. Michael barely noticed Holtz was gone. Holtz wrapped her arm around the small body, pulled him closer to her and grabbed the blanket over their bodies. He positioned himself comfortably in Holtz's arms, his eyes still transfixed on the screen. Only a minute later, Holtz noticed that her son's voice was getting heavier, eyes were getting droopy and he almost dropped the phone on his face if it wasn't for Holtz's reflex, it might just kiss his face. "

Someone should go to sleep," Erin said. 

"Donwan," he mumbled, stifling a wide yawn that was threatening to escape. 

"You're sleepy bud... We should go to sleep," Holtz caressed his thick hair. He shook his head, yawning in the process. 

"I want to talk to Mama. I miss her." His eyes still fixated on the phone screen. 

The engineer caught the flicker of hurt that swept over her wife's face. It was there for a second before she replaced with it with a strained smile. 

"I miss you too. But it's getting really late and you have to go to bed." 

"But I really miss you," he whined. 

Her dark green eyes started to water. Oh this was hard. Harder than she thought it would be. This might be the hardest thing Erin would have ever encounter in her life. She didn't know what to say. She knew if she opened her mouth, her heart would take over and she'll definitely cry. 

"I miss Mama too honey. But she has to go to work, and you have to go to sleep. We'll video call Mama again in the morning kay?" 

Michael took his gaze of the screen and looked into Holtz's cerulean blues. "Promise?" 

"I promise." She answered with a nod and a kiss on his face. 

Michael turned back to the screen. His Mama was still there. "I'll call you again when you're awake later. After work, I'm gonna find you some presents from here, okay Mikey?" 

He managed a tiny nod. "'Kay. I love you Mama," he blew a flying kiss to Erin and she made a hand movement, catching the little one's kiss. 

"Love you too very, very much." 

Michael let Holtz held the phone as he pulled a bit of her pyjama shirt and brought it to his mouth. Ever since he was a baby, Michael tend to put Holtz or Erin's shirt into his fist as he sucked his thumb. It made him feel safe. 

"Mama, sleep song," he mumbled after settling comfortably against his Mommy's chest, ready to fall asleep. 

"Yes Mama. Sleep song!" Holtz positioned the phone between them so that they both could see her and she could see them. 

"Never forget your sleep song huh?" Erin smiled before she started singing a lullaby. 

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine  
You make me happy when skies are gray  
You'll never know dear, how much I love you  
Please don't take my sunshine away.

And with just one verse, Erin's sweet and calming voice put Michael Gilbert-Holtzmann into a deep sleep, leaving the physicist alone with her wife. 

"Holtz?" Erin called, when the screen suddenly turned dark for a second before it flickered back to life, with a very drowsy Holtzmann came into view. 

"Sorry. We both fell asleep..." she rubbed her fingers against her eyes, trying to kick the sleep away. 

"You need to sleep too babe. It's pretty late already... One-thirty in the morning isn't it?" 

"But I miss my wife too!" She whined. 

"Oh gosh. You're worse than Mikey," Erin couldn't help herself from smiling. 

"And you love me!" A smudge grin plastered on her sleepy face. Adorable. 

"Yes I do... And you really should go to sleep." 

"Heh. Sleep is for dudes." 

"No, they're not. Sleep is for everyone. You go to sleep, and we'll talk later, okay?" Erin looked softly at her. 

Holtz sighed. She knew that she would give up so easily when Erin persuaded her like that. She could never say no to her. "Alrrrigghtt." 

"That's my girl...Oh the conference starts in an hour and probably last for the whole day... I'll call you both about ten hours from now, kay?" 

"Okay, hot stuff. Mikey and I will be waiting in the lab. I'm making some cool stuff for you when you get back!" 

"Don't ever let Mikey out of your sight in the lab. I think burning your prototype once is enough." Remembering the incident, made Erin twitched. 

"Wasn't his fault that he loves the blowtorch soooo mucchh like his Mommy!" 

"Yeah right.... Go to sleep hun." 

"Hhmm... I love you babe." 

"Love you too. G'night Holtz...." she gave the camera a kiss. She looked at her wife, with her eyes getting heavier by the second. 

"Mornin' Er... It's .... mor...ning," and with that, Holtz fell asleep. Her wife was still on the screen. 

"Nite my loves." Erin terminated the call, letting the loves of her life sleep. She couldn't wait to go home.


End file.
